Algeria Sentences Journalist to 5 Years in Prison on Charges of Receiving Foreign Funds

A photo taken from Kasbah hill overlooking Algiers on November 3, 2022, shows a general view of the Algerian capital on the Mediterranean sea. (AFP)
A photo taken from Kasbah hill overlooking Algiers on November 3, 2022, shows a general view of the Algerian capital on the Mediterranean sea. (AFP)
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Algeria Sentences Journalist to 5 Years in Prison on Charges of Receiving Foreign Funds

A photo taken from Kasbah hill overlooking Algiers on November 3, 2022, shows a general view of the Algerian capital on the Mediterranean sea. (AFP)
A photo taken from Kasbah hill overlooking Algiers on November 3, 2022, shows a general view of the Algerian capital on the Mediterranean sea. (AFP)

A court in Algeria on Sunday sentenced Ihsane El-Kadi, a prominent journalist in the country, to five years in prison, accusing him of receiving foreign funds with an aim to threaten state security.

In addition, the court ruled that Interface Media, which operates Maghreb Emergent and Webradio, be dissolved and pay a fine of 10 million Algerian dinars ($40,000).

On Sunday, the sixty-year-old journalist listened to the ruling of the judge in the Sidi M’Hamed court without any reaction.

During a court session on March 26, El-Kadi had asked the judge not to attend the pronouncing of the conviction, saying he knows the ruling in advance.

The journalist also refused to answer the court’s questions saying that the conditions for a free trial have not been met and that the investigative judge’s decision to place him in pre-trial detention is “illegal.”

Journalists from Interface attended the court hearing on Sunday and they had assumed the verdict to be harsh.

El-Kadi’s lawyers said they are going to appeal the judgment within the required timeframe.

Ihsan had strongly protested against being described as “khabardji” (an informant) by the country’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune during a television interview last February. His lawyers considered Tebboune’s comments as directed to the judges, saying that the journalist’s indictment did not include the charge of “espionage.”

Article 95 stipulates a sentence of five to seven years in prison for anyone who “receives funds, a gift or an advantage, by any means, from a state, an institution or any other public or private body or from any legal or naturalized person, inside or outside the country, to carry out or incite to carry out acts likely to undermine state security.”

El-Kadi’s defense team had dismissed the foreign funding charges.

They said the only foreign transfer to El-Kadi’s company had been from his daughter who lives in the United Kingdom and who had transferred 30,000 British pounds to the company to pay the salaries of employees.



Iraq Holds Kurdish Government Legally Responsible for Continued Oil Smuggling

Kurdish protesters block the road in front of trucks carrying oil in the Arbat area near Sulaymaniyah, Iraq February 23, 2025. REUTERS/Ako Rasheed/File Photo
Kurdish protesters block the road in front of trucks carrying oil in the Arbat area near Sulaymaniyah, Iraq February 23, 2025. REUTERS/Ako Rasheed/File Photo
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Iraq Holds Kurdish Government Legally Responsible for Continued Oil Smuggling

Kurdish protesters block the road in front of trucks carrying oil in the Arbat area near Sulaymaniyah, Iraq February 23, 2025. REUTERS/Ako Rasheed/File Photo
Kurdish protesters block the road in front of trucks carrying oil in the Arbat area near Sulaymaniyah, Iraq February 23, 2025. REUTERS/Ako Rasheed/File Photo

Iraq's oil ministry said on Thursday it holds the Kurdish regional government (KRG) legally responsible for the continued smuggling of oil from the Kurdish region outside the country.

The ministry reserves the right to take all legal measures in the matter, it added.

Control over oil and gas has long been a source of tension between Baghdad and Erbil, Reuters reported.

Iraq is under pressure from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to cut output to compensate for having produced more than its agreed volume. OPEC counts oil flows from Kurdistan as part of Iraq's quota.

In a ruling issued in 2022, Iraq's federal court deemed an oil and gas law regulating the oil industry in Iraqi Kurdistan unconstitutional and demanded that Kurdish authorities hand over their crude oil supplies.

The ministry said the KRG’s failure to comply with the law has hurt both oil exports and public revenue, forcing Baghdad to cut output from other fields to meet OPEC quotas.

The ministry added that it had urged the KRG to hand over crude produced from its fields, warning that failure to do so could result in significant financial losses and harm the country’s international reputation and oil commitments.

Negotiations to resume Kurdish oil exports via the Iraq-Türkiye oil pipeline, which once handled about 0.5% of global oil supply, have stalled over payment terms and contract details.